Some electrochemical applications involve the loading of hydrogen or similar species into one or more electrodes. There are three primary competing technologies for the loading of hydrogen into an electrode: “Low High” DC voltage application by Takahashi, the “q wave” method of Brillouin, and the “superwave” forms of Dardik.
Most current methods of electrolytic loading of hydrogen into metals involve slow, steady loading with constant current DC or with a constant voltage. Some systems use pulsed high-low series of DC pulses to aid the process. Shaped AC waves are known in the art, however these still require long, slow loading and do not achieve internal compression of the hydrogen within the metal electrodes. Some experimental and engineering designs require regions of very high hydrogen concentrations to be reached before the desired effects can be achieved or studied. For example, United States Patent Application No. 20070280398 describes a fractal based superwaves technique for hydrogen loading involving the addition of many AC waveforms without DC bias.
The problem with known methods of electrochemical hydrogen loading is that the production of the capacitive double layer around the electrode often limits the loading rates and levels reached in the electrode. Therefore, a protocol that can achieve high regions of hydrogen loading within or upon the surface of electrodes in a shorter time and can continue to produce or maintain high loading levels for extended times is needed.